Arseny Matseevich

The son of an Orthodox priest who is leading his race from the Polish gentry, was born in 1697 in Vladimir-Volyn, he studied at the Kiev Academy. In 1733 he traveled to Ustyug Kholmogory and Solovetsky monastery, where he argued with the prisoners there splitters; about this controversy has written "exhortations to Raskolnikov" (published in "Orthodox interlocutors, 1861, t. III). In 1734 - 37 years A. participated in the Kamchatka expedition. In 1737 he was seconded to the Synodal member Ambrose Yushkevich, the then preeminent place in the church hierarchy. This appointment led to a rapprochement of the two bishops and determined the fate of a. Dedicated in March 1741 in the Metropolitan Siberian, and. during his stay in Tobolsk transformed the local episcopal office in the Consistory and defended the newly baptized natives from oppression governor, and the clergy - from the interference of secular court. Harsh Siberian climate detrimental impact on his health, and he, soon after the accession of Elizabeth, was transferred to Rostov, and was named a member of the Synod. His management of the Diocese of Rostov (1742 - 63) was the most brilliant period of its activity. Strict with his subordinates, A. is in sharp opposition to the secular authority. He ignored the orders of the spiritual Rules, . denies the premises of persons with disabilities in the monasteries of his diocese, . with Ambrose Yushkevich the Empress insisted on the removal of secular officials of the Synod and dreams of restoring the patriarchal throne, . Executing Order of the Holy Synod and correcting writing Theophylact Lopatinskii, . "Denunciation of injustice Believer", . he in his supplement to the latter holds the views of Joseph Volotsky, in his "Rejoinder to lampoon Lutheran, . betrothed hammer on a stone of faith "(published in extracting from Chistovich, . "Theophanes Prokopovych", . p, . 386 - 407), it requires the restoration of the patriarchate and advocates of monasticism. Even more strained his relations with the secular authorities, . when at the end of the reign of Elizabeth, and then under Peter III and Catherine II orders, . designed to limit the monasteries in the management of their property, . caused strong resentment in the higher clergy, . In A. it has seen only person capable to engage in open combat with government. February 9, 1763 A. commits in Rostov rite of excommunication, with some increase, against the "Enforced and obidyaschih saints of God churches and monasteries", "receiving data from those ancient bogolyubtsev estate". In March of that year he sent two reports to the Synod, composed in the same spirit (published in "Readings of the Moscow Society of History, 1862, t. II and III). Synod reported Empress of A. as "murderers of her Majesty," and Catherine convict him Synod "of the vicissitudes and outrageous interpretation of St.. Scripture and the attacks on subjects of peace ". Seven days trial lasted A.: He was convicted, demoted to the rank of a simple monk, and imprisoned in Korel'skii Nicholas Monastery. But even in exile A. not stop. He continued to respond with disapproval to remove the monastery property, expressed doubts as to the rights of Catherine to the throne, compassion Grand Duke Paul Petrovich and t. n. All of this material for the second trial of Alexander, and the cause was already given the nature of political. At the end of 1767 A. was deprived of monasticism and sentenced to perpetual imprisonment; under the name of Andrew lied Revel he was kept in solitary confinement, where he died February 28, 1772. Of the many sermons A. published "Seven sermons" (Moscow, 1742 - 43), the rest, numbering 217, are stored in the manuscripts in the Yaroslavl Theological Seminary. - Wed. V. Ikonnikov, "A. Matseevich "," Russian Antiquities "in 1879, t. XXIV - XXVI); Priest. M. Popov, "A. Matseevich, Metropolitan of Rostov and Yaroslavl (St. Petersburg, 1905). "Review of the literature on A." made and. Moroshkina (in the "Bibliography", 1886, N 2 - 4).